He was strong, forceful, brave,--Homeric virtues of real
worth in that hard life which she knew best. All this swept across her
mind in a flash of revelation while she stood alone, her eyes
endeavoring vainly to peer into the gloom. Then, suddenly, that black
curtain was rent by jagged spurts of red and yellow flame. Dazed for
an instant, her heart throbbing wildly to the sharp reports of the
rifles, she shrank cowering back, her fascinated gaze fixed on those
imp-like figures leaping forward from rock to rock. Almost with the
flash and sound Hampton sprang hastily back and gathered her in his
arms.
"Catch hold, Kid, anywhere; only go up, and quick!"
As he thus lifted her she felt the irregularities of rock beneath her
clutching fingers, and scrambled instinctively forward along the narrow
shelf, and then, reaching higher, her groping hands clasped the roots
of a projecting cedar. She retained no longer any memory for Hampton;
her brain was completely terrorized. Inch by inch, foot by foot,
clinging to a fragment of rock here, grasping a slippery branch there,
occasionally helped by encountering a deeper gash in the face of the
precipice, her movements concealed by the scattered cedars, she toiled
feverishly up, led by instinct, like any wild animal desperately driven
by fear, and only partially conscious of the real dread of her terrible
position.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51